Archive for ‘Latin America & Caribbean’

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18/08/2024

The Silent Crisis of Air Pollution

Human Wrongs Watch

By Martin Zavan | Greenpeace International*

— Air pollution is a silent crisis, as lethal as it is pervasive. It affects millions of people around the world but does the most damage to the health and the environment of those living in the Global South.

 

 

 

 

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Heavy smog seen engulfed amid rise in pollution levels at Barakhamba on November 2, 2023 in New Delhi, India. The Air Quality Index (AQI) remained in the “very poor” category for the sixth consecutive day on November 2. © Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times via Getty Images.

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This year, to mark the UN Environment Program’s International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, Greenpeace East Asia’s Clean Air Unit is highlighting the severe health impacts of air pollution and the positive steps global communities are taking to quantify and combat the problem.

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate carnage, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

18/08/2024

Mercury Has Long Poisoned Gold Miners. This New Strategy Is Helping Change That

Human Wrongs Watch

15 AUG 2024 (UNEP)* — In the small coastal town of Guapi, Colombia, Mary Luz Ante Orobio is meeting with a group she calls “the unstoppable women.”  

Credit: AFP/Lius Tato

They are gathered around a wooden chest filled with loose cash, a ledger and a calculator. Orobio flips through the ledger, eyes poring over tidy notes outlining a series of financial investments.

She jots down some numbers before distributing cash among the group.

The women are members of one of 80 local savings and credit groups in Colombia formed with the help of planetGOLD, a programme led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

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17/08/2024

Colombia: Millions Now Living in Conflict Zones

Human Wrongs Watch

By The Norwegian Refugee Council*

15 August 2024 — The number of Colombians living in areas where armed groups operate has increased by 70 per cent since 2021, reports the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Carmen is from an indigenous community, hours into the Colombian Pacific jungle. They face violence, threats, and displacement from armed groups and have been forced to flee many times. Carmen said her community is being destroyed. Photo: Jess Wanless/NRC
 
Today, nearly 8.4 million Colombians live in these zones of conflict, 3.5 million more than in 2021. Civilian suffering is being ignored, and more must be done by both the government and aid agencies to address the humanitarian and protection needs of the civilian population.

Posted in Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

15/08/2024

World Health Organization Announces Highest Level of Alert for Mpox

Human Wrongs Watch

WHO declares mpox virus a public health emergency of international concern

Mpox - formerly monkeypox - is a rare but dangerous infection similar to the now eradicated smallpox virus.
© CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regnery | Mpox – formerly monkeypox – is a rare but dangerous infection similar to the now eradicated smallpox virus.
 
(UN News)* — The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the rise in mpox cases constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), following advice from members at Wednesday’s [] International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee meeting.  
 
A PHEIC is the highest level of alarm under international health law.

Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate carnage, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

15/08/2024

Almost Half a Billion Children Live in Areas Experiencing at Least Twice as Many Extremely Hot Days as Their Grandparents – UNICEF

Human Wrongs Watch

Eight countries, including Mali, Niger, Senegal, South Sudan and Sudan, are home to children who spend more than half the year in temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius / 95 degrees Fahrenheit

A child in Cambodia pours water over their head
UNICEF/UN0290924/Llaurado

NEW YORK, 14 August 2024 (UNICEF)* –– One in 5 children – or 466 million – live in areas that experience at least double the number of extremely hot days every year compared to just six decades ago, according to a new UNICEF analysis.

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Posted in Asia, Climate carnage, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc. | Leave a Comment »

12/08/2024

Let’s Abolish the Colonial IMF on Its 80th Birthday

Human Wrongs Watch

By Arthur Larok*

From Kenya to Pakistan, protesters want the International Monetary Fund to stop exploiting countries in debt crisis

(OpenDemocracy)* 24 July 2024 — Mass protests rocking Kenya in the past month have once again laid bare the predatory lending practices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ​​Placards read “IMF keep your hands off Kenya,” and “We ain’t IMF bitches”, calling on President William Ruto to withdraw an IMF-driven finance bill set to ramp up austerity and regressive taxes. 

Kenyan protesters anger at new IMF measures | James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

07/08/2024

The Demise of Democracy and Human Rights Violations in Bangladesh: International Financial Institutions’ Culpability

Human Wrongs Watch

By Anis Chowdhury, Khalilur Rahman and Ziauddin Hyder

SYDNEY, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON DC, Aug 6 2024 (IPS)* – The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are complicit in the gross human rights violations and death of democracy in Bangladesh.

Anis Chowdhury

They continued to supply financial blood line to the regime, well-documented for its corruptions, human rights violations – such as forced disappearances and tortures in custody – and riggings of votes, including politicization of state institutions in its slide into autocracy.

This is despite their professed commitment to transparency, accountability and good governance (IMF, World Bank, ADB).

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate carnage, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

07/08/2024

New-Borns Are Being Sold for Up to $4,500 in Kazakhstan; the Government Is Cracking Down on Traffickers

Human Wrongs Watch

By Kulpash Konyrova, in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan tightens laws to combat trafficking of newborns

()* — Babies are being sold for up to $4,500 in Kazakhstan, but the government is cracking down on traffickers with a new law adopted earlier this month.

A woman checks on her newborn as a nurse monitors the baby's condition at a perinatal centre in Astana, Kazakhstan.

© Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan | A woman checks on her newborn as a nurse monitors the baby’s condition at a perinatal centre in Astana, Kazakhstan.
 
To fight against trafficking newborns, the new legislation facilitates the criminal prosecution for such crimes as kidnapping, illegal deprivation of liberty, human trafficking, involvement in prostitution and more.

Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

31/07/2024

Adolescent Girls Face Alarming Rates of Intimate Partner Violence : World Health Organization

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Nearly a quarter of all adolescent girls who have been in a relationship – close to 19 million – will have experienced intimate partner violence by the time they turn 20, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said in a new analysis on Monday []. 

WHO says that adolescent girls are the victims of intimate partner violence.
© UNICEF/Olivier Asselin | WHO says that adolescent girls are the victims of intimate partner violence.

Almost 16 per cent, or one in six, were affected in the past year. 

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29/07/2024

Life or Energy: The Hydroelectric Dilemma in Amazonian Brazil

Human Wrongs Watch

By Mario Osava

BELÉM, Brazil, Jul 28 2024 (IPS)* – The decade-and-a-half-long battle for life in the so-called Volta Grande (Big Bend) of the Xingu river, a stretch of the river dewatered by the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant in the Brazilian Amazon, has a possible solution, albeit a partial one. | En español
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An igapó, a flood-prone wooded area on the Vuelta Grande of the Xingu River, with fruit on the dry ground. This is where the piracema, or fish reproduction, was supposed to take place, frustrated by the scarcity of water released by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on this stretch of the river in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. The fruits are lost and stop feeding the fish by falling on the ground and not in the water. Credit: Mati / VGX

An igapó, a flood-prone wooded area on the Vuelta Grande of the Xingu River, with fruit on the dry ground. This is where the piracema, or fish reproduction, was supposed to take place, frustrated by the scarcity of water released by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on this stretch of the river in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. The fruits are lost and stop feeding the fish by falling on the ground and not in the water. Credit: Mati / VGX

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Posted in Climate carnage, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

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